After talking to Nova, Vicente got the contact information of half a dozen Captains of the royal army in Millfall who fit his needs. That is, corrupt people with a bad track record within the organization, the kind that people like that blue beauty kept their distance from.
With the names of these soldiers in mind, Vicente left Nova's house with plans that were a little different from what he had told her.
Vicente had no agreements with these families, so he had no reason to look for ways to break contracts that didn't exist. What he wanted was much simpler!
...
Later that day, night had already fallen on Millfall when one of Vicente's men appeared at the door of one of the names he had received from Nova earlier.
Pa! Pa!
After a few hard knocks on the door of the house in front of him, the level 1 Acolyte sent by Vicente saw a noise coming from behind the door and narrowed his eyes under his mask.
"You..." A tall, strong man, shirtless, with a yellow gem on his forehead, immediately recognized the man sent by Cesar and frowned.
He pulled out a weapon and jumped back twice, knowing that members of factions like Cesar's group often killed people like him.
"What are you doing here, you bastard?" He said in a louder tone, putting aside the drowsiness of a few moments ago when the knocking at his front door had awakened him.
"Don't get upset, Joel Grant. Let's talk. I'm here for my boss, Cesar." A mana-distorted voice said this, not surprising the man.
"Huh! And why should I listen to you? You're under the command of someone wanted by the army!"
"I'll give you five gold coins to listen to me, Joel Grant." The masked man threw a bag of coins toward such a level 3 Acolyte.
The names that Vice had asked Nova for were so that he would know who within the local army would be most likely to work for him!
There were two ways to approach people like these corrupt soldiers. The first was to threaten them, and the second was to buy them.
The first had a big problem: it made people hate you, and you always had to have something to stand on. Vicente was willing to use this when necessary, and some of his men had already threatened groups of local nobles. But he would rather buy off individuals like that if he had the chance and the power.
As someone with a large family and an ordinary talent for the army, as well as someone with a long history of corrupt action, Joel hesitated when he felt the coins in his hands.
It was expensive to have a family and be their sole breadwinner!
He let his guard down and said. "What do you want?"
The man smiled from under his mask and said. "My group will pay you and those with you 50 gold coins. All you have to do is get a group together and do the following..."
He quickly explained Vicente's plan and put a twinkle in the soldier's eye because the job didn't seem difficult at all.
...
Meanwhile, other men of Vicente's group took advantage of the time of night when they didn't have to work as guards in the stores in their faction's territory and were at the doorsteps of other corrupt soldiers.
Their purpose was the same as that of the previous man. To get people from the army to carry out a specific operation that Vicente had devised to solve his local problems.
As Vicente had predicted, all the names mentioned by Nova would agree to listen to the words of his men tonight and eventually return to their base after hearing more or less similar answers from these soldiers.
"We'll try to do that in the next few days." That's what they all said, with slight variations in words and tone.
Meanwhile, some local nobles who had already been threatened by Vicente's men in the previous days didn't know what to do about their current delicate situation.
From the information Vicente's men had given them, they had evidence that could harm them. At the same time, the faction growing on the eastern side of the city could be eliminated at any moment.
As such, many were unsure whether to do nothing and wait for Defiant Tyranny, the army, and the many assassins to deal with Vicente or to follow Vice's recommendations and withdraw their support for that group.
But so far, no one had made up their minds, and for the moment, Vice and Rory's group were bearing the full brunt of the local powers that were angered by their recent actions.
...
At the army barracks in Millfall, the Commander was in his training room, using all his strength to crush his training partner, a special 3rd-garde dummy.
As he did so, some of his trusted men stood around, waiting for him to finish his current workout to bring him up to speed on some recent matters.
But as they watched him train, they couldn't help but notice how angry the Commander was.
"I feel sorry for anyone who 'steps' on the boss's toes these days..." A middle-aged man commented with an amused smile.
Meanwhile, one of the older men there, gray-haired with a beard and mustache, had a determined look on his face as he looked at his leader, with whom he had lived for more than 40 years.
'Those bastards! They dared to threaten us!' This man, number two in this royal army post, thought to himself, remembering the threats that had forced the Commander to order his Captains to hunt down Cesar.
'But they'll pay! Once we have Cesar's head, everything will change.' The man's eyes lit up as he looked down at one of his hands, which held a red coin bearing the symbol of a local group.
'We just have to wait until the two-week period is over. In that time, our friends will have the weapons of this group, and we'll cleanse the city of Cesar's group!' After that, it will only be a matter of time before our new friends deal with you Defiant Tyranny bastards!
...
As the local powers slowly moved in different directions, the night passed, and a new day slowly dawned over Millfall.
That morning, Vicente left home early and soon found himself in the wealthiest part of the city, outside the residence of a local noble family.
'Let me see what I can do here...'
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